riverviewlogs | introductory mingle: MEMORIA

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introductory mingle: MEMORIA

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: Introductory Log and Memoria Commemoration
when: May 1st - May 8th
where: Anywhere around the city.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

memoria

In the days leading up to May 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: Memoria. A more solemn celebration than Sampremi or the Flower Festival, Memoria is a week-long time of remembrance for those lost in the Great War and the epidemic that decimated Riverview Quarantine's population 10 years ago. Memoria traditions include lighting lanterns for the dead, telling stories about lost loved ones or lost homes, eating meals with loved ones, and a special gathering to send floating lanterns down the river in honor of those lost.

a solemn commemoration of those lost

While the main city-wide event associated with Memoria is the floating of lanterns down the river on the evening of May 8th, the holiday is generally seen as a time of reflection on and appreciation of things that have been lost - people, homes, cultures, and planets. It is also a celebration of the things that remain. Many locally-owned shops will host displays of culturally-significant food, and will hand out informational flyers sharing the unique customs of their own homeworlds. There is a heavy emphasis on sharing time with family, friends, and lovers, and anyone who is able to will cook meals or treats for loved ones, or at least purchase them something good to eat.

i. hanging lanterns

Throughout the entire week of Memoria, residents will be hanging lanterns around the city. Lanterns are generally placed in greater number in places of passage - streets, bridges, and all alongside the train lines are particularly well-decorated, as are any trees alongside paths, and most homes and businesses have a profusion of lanterns around their doors and windows. This tradition is twofold; some people believe that the lanterns are hung in these places in order to guide the spirits of the dead back to those who still love them, other people believe that the lanterns are to give light for living loved ones to find their doors in times of darkness...many people believe both.

No matter what your character might believe, you can be sure they will find themselves offered a lantern for free from various businesses or friendly citizens passing by, and invited to hang it before the sun sets, or they may be handed a bundle of lanterns and asked to help share them with others.

ii. sharing life

Throughout the city, characters will find groups of people gathering to share hot drinks and talk about their loved ones lost, their homes and planets, or their experiences during the Great War and the epidemic. Anyone who has lost someone, who has fought to survive, who is feeling cut off and homesick, is welcome to sit and share their story. If your character chooses to sit and to share their story, they will find that people will gather to listen, will generally be respectful of the telling, and may share their own similar experiences in return. This is an excellent time to air grief in an environment where most people understand and respect grief, and a good time to deepen the connections to others around you, to understand them better.

There is also a very large focus on cooking or purchasing meals or treats for loved ones during Memoria, with many people taking meals with everyone they care about during the week of the holiday. Some go the extra mile and will hand out baked goods (usually chocolate or cinnamon), packets of candy, or other little treats to acquaintances, especially if they would like to form a closer bond with them. This is a great time for characters to reach out to someone they would like to get to know better with a surprise treat!

iii. floating of the lanterns

On the evening of May 8th, just before sundown, many of the city's residents will head toward the banks of the river, where they will light lanterns in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, in honor of their dead loved ones. The types of lanterns vary wildly, based on personality (either of the person floating it or the person they are honoring), culture, and many other factors. Some lanterns are very simple, others are incredibly complex, but the one common feature they all have is that people write on the shades of them - they write about their feelings for their loved ones, their wishes for their relationships and friendships, a memory from childhood or home, or even just lines of poetry or lyrics from songs that express something they miss, or something that hurts them.

Once those emotions are written on the lanterns, the lanterns are set free, floating down the river in the darkening evening, in a cathartic gesture shared by most residents of the city. Waves of lantern floating will start around 7 pm and continue until the sun rises on the morning of May 9th.

iv. roommates or wildcard

Feel free to use this prompt to set up headers for a communal floor, or threads open to roommates for the purpose of getting to know each other. Or if you have an idea for a prompt that isn't in this list, set during Memoria, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: image i: glowconcepts, image ii: by trenchmaker, image iv: cherryorange; image iii: found uncredited on Pinterest - please let the mod know if you find credit!

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[ Laurent could only smile, pressing a soft kiss against the other's shoulder, letting his breathing return to normal. ]

I know, love. [ And Damen was right in that. It was something that he knew Auguste would have wished. For Laurent to be happy, to be loved. To be supported, and to never feel alone. ]

He would be glad of that. I am glad for it. [ He lifted his head slowly to gaze at the other once more, before looking out after the lanterns. Watching them join the others upon the water. For a time, he was quiet. Enjoying the other's company, the soft, flickering lights upon the water as the sun slipped lower, bathing everything in a gentle orange glow. ]

I floated a lantern for Nicaise. [ He admitted softly, his eyelids drooping, expression soft, and aching. ]

He deserved better.

[Damen slips his other arm around Laurent as well, holding him from behind when he turns to face the lanterns drifting lazily, peacefully down the river again. It's a little warm for it, maybe, but Damen doesn't mind it. It's a quiet relief when he says that he is glad for this, for them, and he can't help himself from bending his head to press a kiss to golden hair.

He can't find very many words, but he knows that his silences will be interpreted correctly as thought, reflection. Hearing that one of those dots of light downstream is for Nicaise doesn't surprise Damen in the slightest.]

He deserved much more than all of that. [Damen agrees quietly, his hold on Laurent tightening just a fraction, for just a moment.] It wasn't your fault, what he did.

[ Closing his eyes again, Laurent shuddered out a breath. Despite the warmth in the air, Laurent was grateful for the press of the other's presence, the comfort it provided. It really was a reminder that he was not alone. With his thoughts, or his feelings. All he needed to do was allow the other in, allow him to know. And day by day, with Damen, that had become easier and easier to allow himself to do. ]

He was far too smart for his own good. [ And in the end, that cleverness had killed him. Laurent's heart ached with the thought of it. ] I wish I had convinced him to come with us. I wish... [ But at the time, Laurent had assumed he was riding to his death. Had been working hard to thwart that end, of course- but he hadn't had any guarantee that he would be successful. Damen had only been another wildcard, an unsure gamble. How could he have brought Nicaise along, knowing that? Besides, the smaller boy had never seen a day's hard labour in his life, let alone all of the riding they had done. He would have been miserable.

And yet still, that would have been better to him. He had never thought he would miss the other's sharp tongue, his loud complaints. Yet god, he did now. ] I didn't kill him, and yet still- I feel as though his blood is on my hands. I painted the target upon him, simply by caring for him.

[Damen leans gently against him, chest to Laurent's back, resting his chin atop soft golden hair. He can't fix this hurt, can't change what happened to poor Nicaise, but he can be here. He takes a breath to steel himself, and tries hard not to remember the sight of a decaying head in a canvas sack. That helpless cold rush of anger he still feels every time his mind drifts back to the Regent helps no one. It's easier, thinking of how that monster's head will be spiked at the gates.]

You had no guarantee he would survive the trip to the border. You couldn't have known what your uncle would do. [How could he have known? He thought, when they left Arles, that he might be riding to his own death. The Regents actions were meant to disturb Laurent and throw him off, to get him to make a mistake.]

You were possibly the only person in that boy's life who didn't want anything from him. His blood is not on your hands. It is on the hands of the monster who ordered his death.

[ Sighing heavily, Laurent knew that the other's words were true; that he was right in his assessment. That nothing had been a guarantee, and that at the time, he had believed the safest place for Nicaise was for him to remain where he was. Still, it didn't make the boy's death any easier to swallow. ]

He was so young. [ Laurent's voice was so soft, hollow with loss. He had had years to mourn Auguste's death, but Nicaise's was still so fresh. ]

I wonder if he even saw it coming. [ Laurent knew that allowing his mind to travel down such paths was extremely dangerous, the sort of thing that would keep him up for many nights to come- and yet, he couldn't help it. What he had said was true, Nicaise was a smart child. Smarter than his age, to be sure. If he had known, or sensed that such a thing was coming... god, what would he have done, in desperation? ]

[Nicaise was so young, too young to be near the viper's pit of Laurent's uncle's court, but so is Laurent even still, not even twenty one. Damen holds him a little tighter, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. It's still so hard to understand how a man could use children as his pawns, his playthings. He doesn't want to understand, doesn't want to think about any of it.

The Regent is dead. It helps, to picture his head tumbling from his shoulders in the middle of the court.] You'll have nightmares if you follow that train of thought. [He murmurs softly, rubbing Laurent's upper arm as comfort.] You avenged him, in the end. I think he would be pleased about that, at the very least.

I already have nightmares. [ He reminded softly. Even though these were not matters that they normally spoke of, when the daylight still lingered. When such things ought to have been far away from both of them. When the haunting memories of their pasts were able to take hold. ]

But you are right. It doesn't serve either of us to linger on what I cannot change. Not anymore. [ He reached up with his opposite hand, squeezing the other's. Letting the feeling of the other's skin against his own ground him in the here, and now. ]

The Regent is gone, and cannot hurt anyone else. At times, it is hard to remember that. But in the end it is the most important.

I know. [He whispers his reply for Laurent's ears only, just as quiet, just as private. They both have their demons, but Laurent's haunt his sleep more, leaving him to wake in the night. Damen usually wakes with him, stirred by his movements (funny, because otherwise he can sleep like a log), and holds him if he wishes to be held, or talks to him if he doesn't. When Damen wakes in a cold sweat, Laurent does the same for him.

He returns the gentle squeeze of his hand, interlocking their fingers together.] He was a shadow cast on your life for so many years, and he had been dead for only an hour when we came here. It will be easier, with time, to remember that you put a stop to that. What happened to Nicaise will never happen to another.

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introductory mingle: MEMORIA

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